It's a bit misleading to say that the MSM only went after Clinton over "tawdry and scurrilous" little scandals like Vince Foster, Filegate, Travelgate, Haircutgate, Whitewater, Monica, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Indonesiagate...that minimizes the almost-daily drumbeat of such sensationalized "scandal" reporting that obtained virtually throughout the Clinton years. But also, what serious policy initiatives, other than DADT and HillaryCare, would the putatively-GOP-biased MSM gone after him for?

What were some of the policy achievement highlights of the Clinton administration?

-NAFTA: the corporatists in the GOP were big-time supporters of NAFTA. It was part and parcel of their "free trade" policy prescriptions.

-Welfare reform: the GOP had been calling for this for years, to deal with "welfare queens" and other cheats who were just being lazy and leeching off regular hardworking (white) American taxpayers.

-Death penalty expansion: extended the death penalty to criminals whose actions did not directly result in deaths of victims, as well as to many crimes that did result in death but had not previously carried the death penalty. Tough on crime! A GOP standby.

-Communications Decency Act: gotta protect the kiddies from the big, bad, wild West Intertubes!

-DMCA: Can't let Mickey Mouse fall into the public domain!

-Telecom Reform Act: Why shouldn't we allow telecom consolidation? Why shouldn't we allow Clear Channel to own 80% of commercial radio?

-Defense of Marriage Act: Why should states be required to recognize gay marriages licensed in other states?

I am hard-pressed to find a "substantive" Clinton-era policy that would have merited an MSM backlash, if we accept the thesis that the MSM is giving preferential treatment to the GOP and being hard on Dems. Meanwhile the "tawdry and scurrilous" character flaw scandals abound and are breathlessly and endlessly analyzed.

You know one big reason why that is? The 1994 election. When Republicans swept the House (and later in 1996, the Senate), Clinton lost control of the legislative agenda. He couldn't pursue policies not approved by the GOP (and by extension, the media); those proposals never saw the light of day. And why was the 1994 election such a GOP sweep? Because the frickin' media endlessly trashed "HillaryCare/Socialized Medicine" and DADT "OMG TEH GHEY LIBRULZ SUXXORZ!!!!" And that was that. What had started off so promising for liberal/progressive-minded Americans (the 1992 election was a HUGE high point, at least in my life) devolved into a now 14-year nightmare.

The MSM enabled it. You can't tell me otherwise; I know it for a fact. I was there, I lived it.

Watchdog journalists are so 20th century! We are much safer with the toothless pack of lapdog journalists now groomed and hand fed by the power elites in government and commerce (if they are not one and the same): these cuddly little puppies aren't going to provoke any of that dangerous thinking about those pesky facts.

KBCS was playing [folk?] something I couldn't quite characterize. Had to resort to my old stand-by.

KNTU Univ. of North TX has one of the premier jazz instruction programs in the nation. Give a listen. News is on now, though.

http://www.kntu.com/universal/playlists/kntulive.asx

or click sig

Remember? No journalist wants to piss the White House (or any government official, for that matter) off too much because then you lose your "access."

Of course, it still has yet to occur to any of these wizards that "access" is only real when it's access to the truth....

It seems to me that the publishers and high management officials of media corporations have a lot in common with corporate owners and managers in general and thus with the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic Parties and of course the people who are elected to high government office. Not all of them will come from an upper-class background, but certainly those who succeed in associating with them will exhibit a substantial degree of conformity with their values, interests, frames of reference, assumptions, and tastes -- otherwise they will not be taken on. Those who are further down the political, social and economic food chains will typically attempt to emulate their superiors -- this is a well-known and often-observed fact of social psychology. Thus a typical media corporation ought to exhibit a fairly uniform culture at least across those level who determine what is exhibited to the public.

In these circumstances, it is hardly remarkable that the mainstream or bourgeois media seem to echo the government's pronouncements and generally act in a subservient manner. This is what we should expect. It is not exactly a "propaganda model" a la Noam Chomsky; the media are probably not consciously emitting propaganda but reflecting the world view of their class.

The main force militating against complete uniformity and subservience of opinion in the corporate media is probably the capitalist need to sell advertising and other media products to the lower orders. Thus, Clinton's sexual pecadillos were given considerable play -- sex sells -- whereas his wars were pretty much accepted. But this consideration will probably be set aside when class interests are at stake.

Thanks for the link! I'll stream some while I'm at the pooter.

We have an NPR station KPLU 88.5FM which covers jazz exclusively, and they do a great job. The wonder of KBCS is the variety of music and the depth of the coverage. "A world of music" (and no NPR news, Democracy Now! instead) I couldn't begin to describe the extent of the coverage, and the individual shows are very, very good (to amazing in some cases)

KBCS is where I heard that contemporary folk song about domestic violence entitled (and I am not kidding) "She Knows It (Like the Back of His Hand)"! I was blown away by that song.

You might check their playlists to see if there is something which might appeal to you. I am a member, so I have to plug the station every chance I get. Public radio works that way.

Go back and read www.dailyhowler.com and The Hunting of the President by Salon's Joe Conason and reporter/columnist Gene Lyons. You have fallen victim to the MSM lies you seem to criticize. Except for Lewinsky there were NO Clinton presidential scandals. Both were exonerated on everything. The Whitewater scandal was a Jeff Gerth New York Times scandal--read Hunting. Bill Clinton was pursued by racists like Jim Johnson (his home was called White Haven) who linked up with Floyd Brown of Willie Horton fame to destroy Clinton because Clinton worked hard and successfully to destroy racism in Arkansas, telling Johnson, who ran for governor, that he was disgusting and made Clinton ashamed to be from Arkansas. Clinton took a semester off from college to work for Johnson's opponent. Johnson was the one who pressured Faubus to block black students from Little Rock. FBI, Travel Office, all media excesses created by the GOP--just like the Al Gore serial liar stories. You know he never said he invented the internet, or claimed to be the Love Story model, and he didn't introduce Willie Horton--that, in fact, was Bill Bradley. The reason swiftboating Kerry worked so well was all that practice the GOP got in the nineties when no one, including so-called liberal columnists, challenged them when they went after the Clinton's. Again, go back and reread Bob Somerby's excellent work.